With increased air travel, organizations with authority over air space, such as for example EuroControl, the Federal Aviation Administration, Australian Air Services, and the Bay of Bengal Cooperative Air Traffic, have taken to issuing time windows or “slots” during which individual airplanes may pass through a controlled air space. Generally speaking, slots are issued for purposes of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) to reduce air congestion and to promote safety. Controlled air spaces that are subject to such slots typically include air spaces designated for arrivals and/or departures at airports. Controlled air spaces may also, however, include en-route air space not associated with any particular airport.
Authorities or Air Service Network Providers (ANSP's) that issue slots typically do so on a first scheduled, first assigned basis. That is, slots are assigned in a chronological order that follows the chronology in which airplanes are initially scheduled to pass through a controlled air space. Disruptions, however, frequently occur and cause displacements between assigned slots and actual times at which an airplane should be present in a controlled air space to maintain a desired schedule. As may be appreciated, disruptions occur for various reasons. Actual flight schedules often change due to unexpected circumstances, such as weather based delays, equipment based delays, crew based delays, and the like. Moreover, an authority may reduce the number of available slots to slow the rate at which airplanes pass through a controlled space, such as when inclement weather is present or expected in the future. In such situations, Air Service Network Providers may reallocate slots for controlled airspace based on updated, actual flight schedules, as necessary, to accommodate such situations, again assigning slots on a first scheduled, first assigned basis.
Aircraft operators may exchange slots among flights in an operators own schedule as well as with flights of other aircraft operators. In this respect, aircraft operators may make efforts to better accommodate their own flight schedule and business goals. Programs have been established that facilitate the exchange of slots through rules set in Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) frameworks that allow individual aircraft operators to make slot exchanges outside of the first scheduled, first assigned system. In this respect, individual aircraft operators may attempt to better accommodate their own business objectives by exchanging slots with other aircraft operators, subject to any restrictions imposed by Collaborative Decision Making framework agreements.
Conventionally, aircraft operators employ multiple slot coordinators who review airline schedules and slot schedules to identify alternate slots that might improve the flight schedule of the airline. A slot coordinator may be provided with a view of an airline schedule and a separate view of slot assignments. When a potential slot exchange is identified, the slot coordinator may, under certain circumstances (e.g., when the other airline is not placed in a better condition by the exchange) contact his/her counterpart slot coordinator at another airline requesting a slot exchange for a particular flight. If an agreement is reached, the slot exchange may be executed.